Abstract

In the years leading up to the National Party's (NP) election victory in 1948, fear played an important role in the history of the Afrikaner. In the wake of the Anglo-Boer War, there was the fear of domination by British imperialism. But by the 1940s this fear had been replaced by a fear of domination by black people, and this fear, fed by NP propaganda, played a role in the acceptance by many whites of the policy of apartheid. In the course of the first decade of apartheid government, i.e. 1948 to 1958, fear continued to be an important factor in right-wing white politics. In this study the fear factor is analyzed in historical context, inter alia indicating how and why the rise of African nationalism contributed towards its development, and the extent to which it assisted (and was manipulated by) the NP in the process of drawing away political support from the United Party, and thus in the establishment of the apartheid state.